220 STAG-HUNTING 



been hunted by the old North Devon Stag Hounds, 

 so they were probably extinct a century ago. In 

 1 86 1, however, against the better judgment of Lord 

 Taunton, Mr. Bisset commenced the formation of a 

 Quantock herd by turning out both purchased deer and 

 others captured on Exmoor. This herd, though it has 

 no connection with those in the home country, has in- 

 creased and multiplied to a somewhat alarming extent, 

 and is now much too big for its very limited district. 



With this exception, the country now hunted over 

 is much the same as it was a hunded years ago. Before 

 that there were wild deer in many parts of Devonshire. 

 L,ord Graves, on handing over the mastership of the 

 North Devon Stag Hounds to the first Earl Fortescue 

 in 1812, wrote, ' The present Duke of Bedford (the 6th) 

 told me that his great-grandfather (Wriothesley, 2nd 

 Duke, b. 1680, d. 1711) when he resided atTavistock 

 kept the staghounds. The principal haunt of the 

 deer then was in Holt Chase, in the coverts on the 

 banks of the Tavy, Tamar, Teign, Dart, and Torr 

 rivers, on the side of Dartmoor. When run they 

 often went to sea in Torbay.' 



There is a tradition also that Squire Arscott, of 

 Tetcott, near Holsworthy, kept staghounds as well as 

 foxhounds, and there is a gruesome story of his whip 

 having been eaten by the hounds one night when he 



